How to teach grammar to help ESL students in writing – Articles “a/an”
If you ask ESL students which is correct — “an university” or “a university”, many students will say “an university” is correct because “u” is a vowel. This kind of mistake occurs because we did not make the rules clear to our students, who know that there are five vowel letters “a, e, i, o, u.” They believe that if a noun starts with a vowel letter, we should use “an.” Actually the rule is that if a word starts with a vowel sound, we have to use “an.” That is why we say “an SUV,” even though “S” is a consonant letter. “U” is pronounced in two ways. “a uniform,” but “an uncle,” We say “a hotel,” but “an hour” because in “hour” h is not voiced.
i am now prepearing to write an essay about correcting grammar in elementary level. Is there any model that i can follow for having a case-study? thanks
Comment by janice tang — March 29, 2008 @ 09:38
The last part of this article is invaluable. “a hotel�, but “an hour� because in “hour� h is not voiced. Or silent, this is a very CLEAR I will be using.
Thanks
Comment by BillB — April 7, 2008 @ 09:47